Twitter reveals the year that was: Australia in 2017

It was, without a doubt another eventful year for Australia locally and around the world, and as always we saw it all play out in a big way on Twitter in Australia.

From major social movements like #MarriageEquality and #StopAdani, to the #k-pop revolution and the arrival of #amazon, and with #esports and #gaming emerging as top sports trends, it’s certainly been a year to remember.

Buckle up and take a look at the biggest trends, the most talked about identities and brands, and the most passionate communities across politics, news, entertainment, sport.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this year’s “Golden Tweet” (the most Retweeted Tweet) in Australia was about #MarriageEquality, the most Tweeted about #auspol topic since August. This celebratory Tweet from @AMEquality has been Retweeted almost 20,000 times:

Discussion around political topics is always huge in Australia, and 2017 was no different. #auspol retained its position as the most-Tweeted hashtag of the year by Aussies on Twitter. The conversation on #auspol is as varied as Australian politics itself (and regularly overlaps with what’s getting Aussies talking on top-five ranking hashtag #QandA). Twitter is about informing and uniting people and this year we saw a lot of Tweeting about social movements such as #MarriageEquality, #Manus and #StopAdani.

But it wasn’t just politics and movements that got us Tweeting. The phenomenal rise of esports in Australia has pushed #gaming into the top ten hashtags for the year, ahead of even the #ausopen.

Australian Twitter hasn’t been immune to the K-pop sensation sweeping the world, and Korean favourites @BTS_twt (the most-mentioned Twitter account in the world in 2017) had the ninth most Tweeted hashtag by Australian Twitter users with #BTS.

Here’s the ten biggest hashtags in Australia for 2017:

There’s more! The Year on Twitter Resources folder includes the following “Most Tweeted about” lists:
Entertainment hashtags
Sporting hashtags
Social movement hashtags
The folder also includes notable Tweets associated with the top 5 hashtags of the year.

When it comes to Twitter’s most-followed Australians, our many world famous entertainment superstars – especially music stars – dominate, each of them offering their massive global fan bases inside access you can’t get anywhere else.

The big news in 2017 is that Australia has a new king of Twitter, with Wolverine star @RealHughJackman overtaking @5SOS frontman @Luke5SOS as the most followed Aussie. Both these stars also cracked through the 10 million follower barrier this year, an extraordinary achievement for the Aussies legends. Other big movers in 2017 were @iggyazelea and @troyesivan, both gaining over a million new followers.